WHEN planets align against you, you seek comfort in friends and food. And that's what we did last week as we gorged on very familiar food, bangus.
The latest addition to the growing list of restaurants here is Pixie's Sinugba right across the entrance of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas convention center (along Jacinto Extension just before the corner of Arellano Street).
Pixie's is a franchise from a restaurant chain that started as a takeout outlet in Tandang Sora, Quezon City.
Trisha was quite familiar with it as there is one outlet right outside ABS-CBN in Manila, she said.
And so she was the one who ordered Inihaw na bangus (P188) and inang gulay (92), made up of okra, kangkong, and patola with toasted garlic bits.
The servings are big, she said, and can easily feed the three of us.
But Imee wasn't quite convinced and so she opted to order two more: Tilapcharap (P135), a chicharon made of bangus skin, and sizzling crab meat (P165).
Trisha was right. The servings were big and we could hardly consume our orders.
Still, it was very good comfort food that we feasted on, forgetting our miseries for the few hours it took to first gobble and then later nibble.
By the end of the meal, there was still a considerable amount of the crab meat and two pieces of Tilapcharap left.
Imee's dog stands to benefit that night.
She wanted to just carry the two pieces in her hands. But since there were no paper napkins to wrap it with, I asked the waiter to wrap it for us instead. It's for a dog, she said, and thus need not be wrapped properly.
We waited for the doggie bag and our bill, and waited longer for the doggie bag after settling our bill.
As we stood up, thinking the doggie bag must have been forgotten, a waiter rushed out and handed over a plastic bag with a Pixie's bangus box.
"Ang laki naman ng lalagyan," I said, as Imee looked in confusion.
We brushed it off as the restaurant's queer way of wrapping leftover food, but Imee wasn't as convinced.
"Mabigat lagi," she said.
"Mabigat siguro ang karton," I replied.
"Hindi, mabigat talaga," she insisted as she started to remove the box from the sando bag it was placed it.
It was then when the same waiter rushed out again to apologize and ask for the box back. The box turned out to be a takeout order by a man who was standing outside. Yikes! Had we been in a hurry to leave, one customer would have been left cooling his heels while a waiter will most likely have to pay for the mix-up.
Imee waited a few seconds longer for her doggie bag... All's well that ends well, and it was one satisfying meal, indeed. Best of all, the bangus is boneless and "kaliskis"-less, thus the food is there to savor without having to agonize over.